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Hey everyone — Election Day is on Tuesday. If you haven’t yet voted, you should make plans to. Ahead of every midterm and presidential election, I republish a piece I wrote in 2022 making the case to Tangle readers about why they should participate. Every other year, I update the piece a little bit based on responses I got the previous year or to reflect current events. This year, I’m excited to be publishing this piece again. I hope you enjoy and share it with your family and friends (this Friday edition is available to everyone).
Best,
Isaac

While you’re here...
We are currently running a 26% discount on our newsletter subscription during the 2026 midterms. That comes out to less than $4/month, which is less than you probably spend on a single coffee or beer. Subscribing to Tangle unlocks all our Friday editions (like this one), 2,000+ articles in our archive, the comments section, the ad-free newsletter, and other offerings like Press Pass and A Grain of Saul.

Election night coverage.
This Tuesday, Tangle’s hosting an evening of midterm elections coverage, sponsored in part by the folks at Incogni. Executive Editor Isaac Saul and our team will break down the results as they come in and welcome guests like Adam Mockler, Batya Ungar-Sargon, Dave Weigel, Noah Rothman, and more. We’ll be livestreaming from our YouTube channel, so check in here at 7:00 PM ET on Election Night.

Isaac will also be joined by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman and Editor-at-Large Kmele Foster for part of the night, as he is every week for the Suspension of the Rules podcast. This week, the three discussed the breaking news out of Alaska, some viral Midterm campaign moments, and what ballot initiatives have caught their eyes. Listen to or watch the latest episode!

You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.

Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast written by: Isaac Saul and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Jon Lall.

Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Tuesday, Israel held its first elections since Hamas’s October 7 attacks in 2023. With approximately 96% of ballots counted, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has won more seats than any other party in Israel’s Knesset but will fall short of the 61 seats needed for a majority. The results set the stage for what is expected to be weeks of negotiations over a new governing coalition and Netanyahu’s future.

Election night coverage.
This Tuesday, Tangle’s hosting an evening of midterm elections coverage, sponsored in part by the folks at Incogni. Executive Editor Isaac Saul and our team will break down the results as they come in and welcome guests like Adam Mockler, Batya Ungar-Sargon, Dave Weigel, Noah Rothman, and more. We’ll be livestreaming from our YouTube channel, so check in here at 7:00 PM ET on Election Night.

Isaac will also be joined by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman and Editor-at-Large Kmele Foster for part of the night, as he is every week for the Suspension of the Rules podcast. This week, the three discussed the breaking news out of Alaska, some viral Midterm campaign moments, and what ballot initiatives have caught their eyes. Listen to or watch the latest episode!

Ad-free podcasts are here!
Get 20% off your first year of ad-free episodes, exclusive interviews, and deep dives with Tangle’s podcast membership!

You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠ and today’s “Under the radar” story ⁠here⁠ and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.

You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.

Take the survey: What do you think of the election result? Let us know.

Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast written by: Isaac Saul and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.

Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's jam packed election themed episode of Suspension of the rules, Isaac, Ari and Kmele explore controversial campaign tactics, political rhetoric, antisemitism in political advertising, and upcoming ballot initiatives in Florida and California. They examine how political opportunism and divisive messaging affect public trust and democratic debate and much more. Its a good one!

The hidden cost of the data-center boom.
In recent Tangle editions, we’ve covered artificial intelligence, AI hacks, data centers, data center moratoriums — if it’s related to the AI boom (or bubble), we’ve been on it. In our new YouTube video, Associate Producer Aidan Gorman follows another lead: Are utility bills going up to pay for data centers in other states? To find the answer, Aidan takes to the road and follows a new electric line from an existing coal plant in West Virginia through a planned substation in Maryland to data centers in Virginia. You can check it out here.

Ad-free podcasts are here!
Get 20% off your first year of ad-free episodes, exclusive interviews, and deep dives with Tangle’s podcast membership!

You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.

Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast written by: Isaac Saul and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Jon Lall.

Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is the "blue tsunami" talk legit?

Hey — I'm Isaac Saul, the founder and executive editor of Tangle. This is my new semi-regular newsletter A Grain of Saul, where I dive into some topics we don't get to in our main newsletter.

One of two things is currently happening:
President Trump is burning down a powerful political coalition in historic time, or
The polls are very misleading.
YouGov recently ran a poll on the Senate race in Texas. Among the respondents, 52% said they had voted for Donald Trump in 2024. 40% said they had voted for Kamala Harris. 41% self-identified as Republicans, while just 26% self-identified as Democrats.
And yet, in that poll, 50% of the respondents said they were planning to vote for the Democratic Senate candidate, James Talarico, and 44% said they were planning to vote for the Republican, Trump-endorsed candidate Ken Paxton. Of the people who responded that they were voting for Talarico, 97% said their mind was made up, while just 3% said there was still a chance they’d switch to Paxton.

Again: James Talarico, the man President Trump has dubbed “James TalaFREAKO,” is polling six points ahead of the president’s preferred candidate, in Texas, among a group of respondents who broke 52–40 in the president’s favor less than two years ago.

It’s not just in Texas, either. In Kansas, a state Trump won by 16 points in 2024, the Senate race is now a toss-up. A New York Times/Siena College poll published earlier this month shows the race tied. Kansas hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.

The hidden cost of the data-center boom.
In recent Tangle editions, we’ve covered artificial intelligence, AI hacks, data centers, data center moratoriums — if it’s related to the AI boom (or bubble), we’ve been on it. In our new YouTube video, Associate Producer Aidan Gorman follows another lead: Are utility bills going up to pay for data centers in other states? To find the answer, Aidan takes to the road and follows a new electric line from an existing coal plant in West Virginia through a planned substation in Maryland to data centers in Virginia. You can check it out here.

Ad-free podcasts are here!
Get 20% off your first year of ad-free episodes, exclusive interviews, and deep dives with Tangle’s podcast membership!

You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.

Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast written by: Isaac Saul and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Jon Lall.

Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a Senate race that could determine the majority in the upper chamber, Democrat Troy Jackson holds a narrow polling lead over Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in Maine. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win a Senate majority, and Collins is the only incumbent Republican senator running for reelection this year in a state that Kamala Harris (D) won in 2024. The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections and Sabato’s Crystal Ball all rate the race a toss-up, but Jackson holds a 1.2-point lead over Collins in the most recent RealClearPolitics polling average. As of Wednesday morning, 220,000 Mainers have cast early votes in the election, with registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans nearly 5:2.

The hidden cost of the data-center boom.
In recent Tangle editions, we’ve covered artificial intelligence, AI hacks, data centers, data center moratoriums — if it’s related to the AI boom (or bubble), we’ve been on it. In our new YouTube video, Associate Producer Aidan Gorman follows another lead: Are utility bills going up to pay for data centers in other states? To find the answer, Aidan takes to the road and follows a new electric line from an existing coal plant in West Virginia through a planned substation in Maryland to data centers in Virginia. You can check it out here.

Ad-free podcasts are here!
Get 20% off your first year of ad-free episodes, exclusive interviews, and deep dives with Tangle’s podcast membership!

You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠ and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.

You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.

Take the survey: Who do you think will win? Let us know.

Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast written by: Will Kaback and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.

Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.